New Valentine's Tradition
by Zoja
Summary: On Sue's first Valentine's Day in D.C., Jack and Sue created a new tradition.


**A/N: **Just a short one-shot about Valentine's Day... It's Jack/Sue, of course :) Forgive me my mistakes :) And I hope you're going to like it :)

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Even though she was a romantic, Sue Thomas has never been a huge fan of the Valentine's Day. She has never felt the special atmosphere, which everyone was talking about. For her it was the same day as any other, and the only difference was that everyone talked about love, and there were hearts everywhere. In high school, one of the girl from her class told her, that it was because she has never experienced the magic of the day herself. Sue didn't like her words, but she had to admit that they were true, because when she arrived to D.C. she started to see the day in a different way.

It was her first year in this place, and she didn't know if there were any traditions in the team, so she tried to ask Lucy about it. Her flatmate explained, that they never did anything for each other, but also told her about huge amount of cards and chocolates Jack and Bobby always received. That was when her plan was ruined; she had been planning to buy a card for Jack, but after she heard this she knew that she would have to give him something special if she wanted him to like and remember it. Lucy told her that he always burnt most of the cards, and gave his chocolates to Bobby, who loved getting them. She didn't want her gift to end like this.

"So, you admit that you _have _feelings for Jack?" asked Lucy, whose curiosity was raised really high because of all of the questions.

"Luce, it's not like this. I just wanted to give him something because he's my friend and I've got what I do have only because of him… I wanted it to be a thank you…" said Sue, but she had to admit that she definitely didn't sound convincing; she was one of those people who couldn't lie to her friends.

"Oh come on, Sue! You could give him a thank you gift any day! You want to give him something because you _care _for him, and I can see it written on your face."

"Of course I care for him! He's my friend!" she noticed Lucy's raised eyebrows and she just sighed "Look, it doesn't matter what I feel – we work together, he's my training agent and that's it. I think he deserves a thank you from me, and the Valentine's Day is just a wonderful opportunity!"

She wanted to give him something special, something that will remind him of her, but she had no idea what it could be. She was sure that she visited almost every shop with gifts and she just couldn't find anything. Only when she was walking next to the confectionery she found the idea for a perfect gift. And it would be one of the kind, because she would make it completely by herself.

She ignored Lucy, who watched her confused when Sue got home and immediately went to the kitchen. She found the recipe for her grandmother's muffins and started to prepare everything to bake them. She has already baked them once since she came to D.C. and when she had taken them with herself to work, everybody from the team loved it, but Jack in particular. He ate most of them and when she said that she had more at home, he immediately asked her if there was anything he could do to get more of them. She remembered how happy she felt then; of course she brought him more and even thought about baking more. She shook her head at the thought. She knew it wasn't right to feel so happy about such things, but she has never felt like this with anyone before. Every time Jack smiled at her or praised her, she felt like her heart was going to jump out of her chest and she had to find the urge to jump from happiness.

"Oh, now you can be sure that Jack will love your gift!" smiled Lucy when she realized what her friend was going to do "You know how much he likes them!"

"I know, and that's why I thought about it." admitted Sue, and her cheeks reddened a little when she noticed the grin on her flatmate's face.

"I'll say it's a good choice. You know what they say – that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. And because he always says that you're a great cook, I'm sure that his stomach is all yours!"

"Luce!" Sue blushed deeply, and looked away from her friend, focusing on her task.

In the evening she had a lot of muffins baked, and she put the best ones in the box she had bought. When she wasn't able to put any more inside, she closed it and tied it with a red bow. She smiled, but also started to feel a bit scared what he will think. She was afraid that he's going to think that it was stupid that she decided to give him a gift. But she decided to give it a try; if he didn't like it, she would just remember to never think about something like this again.

The minute she went into the bull-pen on the next day, she felt her heart jump. The first thing she noticed was a white teddy bear hugging a heart, sitting on her desk. She smiled widely as she knew it had to be a gift from Jack. She remembered the talk with Jack next to the shop, where she admired all of the toys for Valentine's Day.

"_I really don't understand what people see in all of those Valentine's Gift… It's not like I have something against expressing love in this way, but I always feel like those gifts are for show… You don't have to wait for Valentine's Day to give something special to the person you love…" he told her then. _

"_You're right." she said and he looked at her confused "I agree with your words. But it's always an occasion to do something special for the people you care about… And it feels nice when you get a small gift or even a card with a nice word…"_

"_I don't know… I get dozens of those and it never felt like anything special…" _

"_Maybe you just didn't get it from the special person." she said, and she turned her eyes away from his face, because he looked at her in the way which made her blush, but also made her heart jump. _

"_How about you? What is the most special gift you have ever gotten?" he asked, and she blushed even more. _

"_That would be a box of my favourite chocolates I got from my father… He's the only person who has ever given me anything for Valentine's Day…" she admitted shyly, and he touched her arm – something he always did when he wanted her to stop feeling embarrassed. _

"_Then all the guys in Ohio must be either blind or stupid!" he said and she smiled; she had no idea how he did it but he was always able to make her feel better. _

She would have never guessed that he'll decide to buy her a gift. But, just as she thought, it made her feel really special. When Jack placed the toy on her desk after arriving at work earlier than usual in the morning, he was wondering what she was going to think about it. He knew that she'll immediately figure out that he was the one to buy it and he was scared that she wasn't going to like it. He just couldn't understand how it was that people didn't notice what a wonderful person Sue was, and he wanted to show her that he noticed it. Her reaction however made him happy; he felt really proud of himself when he saw that she smiled every time when her eyes landed on the teddy bear. But what made him even more happy was the box, which he found after getting back from lunch.

At first he thought that it was just another one of the boxes with chocolates he was getting a lot of every year, and every year he gave all of them to Crash. He really didn't understand what his friend liked in getting all those gifts; for him it was just stupid. But then he noticed that this box was different; in comparison to others it was normal. Just a white box with a red bow, and its simplicity was the only reason why he looked into it. But when he did it, his heart jumped. He immediately knew that he had gotten this one from Sue, because it was full of her muffins. Only the thought that she decided to get him something was wonderful; she didn't have to give him those muffins, she could as well buy him a card and he'd love it only because it would be from her. Because she was right – he didn't like his gifts because he has never gotten one from a special person; and now he did.

He looked at her and Sue immediately blushed when she noticed that he caught her on watching him open her gift. He was sure that he must be grinning like an idiot, and she just smiled back.

"Thank you. It's the best gift I've ever gotten." He signed and her face became even more red.

"Thank you, too. I always dreamed about getting a Valentine's teddy bear, and this one is really beautiful."

Their first Valentine's Day was always among their favourite memories; when they thought about it later they agreed, that it was the first time they actually showed that they really care about each other. It was also the day when the new tradition was made. Since that day, every year for Valentine's Day, Sue baked muffins for Jack and he bought her a teddy bear.


End file.
